$8m Illegal Poker Party Raided

Wednesday, 13 May 2015

A group of high rolling poker players have been arrested in China after a police raid late last week.

According to a report by Shanghai Daily, eight men from China's largest city were detained by the local authorities after investigations showed that they had wagered more than $8 million during a single month.

The underground games are illegal in Shanghai and officers were able to track the movements of the players through social media channels. Detailed in the police report, the man in charge of the games, only identified by his surname Xu, advertised them through sites such as WeChat and Momo.

Tracing the adverts, the officers then found an apartment in the Lujiazui district where the attendees would play high stakes poker games throughout the night. After sifting through the evidence, the police ascertained that the young businessmen who played were offered everything from catering, loans and insurance.

Moreover, within a one month period, the players took part in 20 "gambling parties" and staked more than $8 million. That haul was enough to net the owners almost $650,000.

The game's organisers, as well as six patrons, have now been detained and will await trial on charges of running illegal gambling parties.

Tuesday is the deadline for all working Americans to have submitted their income tax returns to the federal government and Juicy Stakes and Intertops Poker are set to mark this annual occasion by holding a special freeroll competition featuring a $1,000 top prize.

“We run a lot of higher stakes tournaments for our more hard-core players,” said Intertops’ poker manager. “But since our network is generally pretty soft, we created this series to give less competitive players a shot at winning.”